What makes Mexico unique are some of the rituals and traditions preformed for the coming of a New Year. Initiated to facilitate blessings upon oneself and loved ones, most are ancient and passed down generation to generation. This day as most of us celebrate it is coming up on January 1st. The Comcaác New Year of the Seri people of Sonora celebrates a time when the Sea of Cortez and Sonoran Desert begin a cycle of regeneration, creating an abundance of food from the desert and fish from the sea. This celebration takes place on June 30th, usually with the apparition of the new summer moon. Traditionally in Mexico along with familiar fireworks being lit some participate in creating stuffed dummies or scarecrows made with old clothes that are to represent the old year. At midnight these figures would be set afire and doing so signifies letting go of the old and bringing in better fortune for the new year to come. Similarly, compiling a list of everything bad that’s going on in your life, or of everything bad that happened over the past year, and then burning it is done too. Developed from a Spanish ritual what remains one of the most popular is the eating of 12 grapes. When counting down the clock to strike midnight, eat 12 grapes within the minute, making one wish for each grape you consume. If you are successful than your wishes will come true it's believed. When it comes to the food to be eaten, the most traditional meal for good luck is thought to be Bacalao a la Vizcaino, a dish of salted & dried codfish with olives, capers, and tomatoes. But to represent abundance, Lentils are widely consumed, left dried outside the doorway, or even carried around one's person. To bring good fortune or wealth there are many traditions passed down. Just holding money in your hand when the new year arrives will bring prosperity but also done is putting pesos in your shoes for the few days surrounding. Cleaning is a way to clear the air for a new year with new beginnings. Specifically sweeping. It is very common for people to sweep towards the outside of a home, perhaps out through a door or gate, to drive away the negative experiences of the previous year and bring renewal. Some people also throw coins on the ground outside and sweep them into the house to ensure financial success. When evening comes, it’s customary to turn on each of the houselights so that prosperity and success radiate throughout the year. And then there is the matter of color. In candles and in underwear. Red underwear for love and passion on New Year's eve, yellow underwear for prosperity and happiness, green for wealth and wellbeing and white for hope and peace. Similarly for candles to be burned, blue brings peace. Yellow for abundance. Red ignites love. Green imparts health. White for the gaining of knowledge and orange of intelligence. Another strong tradition is that of throwing a bucket or glass of water out a door or window to signify renewal and burning the past. The water is supposed to represent the person's tears and suffering. To bring good travels in the coming year including by way of boat, it’s a ritual to walk an empty suitcase around the house or block or place suitcases in the middle of a room for people to walk around them.
Since ancient times, the Mexican culture has been filled with traditions and celebrations, many being religious and others superstitious. As far as spiritual or supernatural beliefs regarding fortune, luck can be influenced through spiritual means by performing certain rituals or by avoiding certain circumstances. The idea of luck is both loved and disliked as it places a certain occurrence or achievement outside of one's direct control. It has been said lucky people generate their own good fortune via four basic principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, making lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, creating self-fulfilling prophecies via positive expectations, and adopting a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good. Luck is to some extent a vague notion. The truth is we are responsible for our thoughts and for the actions that follow. We are responsible for responding to our circumstances in a way that results in the best possible self. That is possibly why these rituals have been created and what better time than the beginning of a new year to practice betterment of life. At the root of luck is the importance of an event as a requirement for its eligibility to be lucky. So, it's up to your intent. Then theoretically only improbable events can be lucky or unlucky. Alternatively, an event is lucky only if it is fragile or if the world had been even slightly different it would not have occurred. In other words, one is lucky only if things might have gone badly when they went well, or if one’s success was against all odds. One is unlucky if one just missed out on a likely success, or if a small change in the world would have brought victory instead of the actual loss. What can and has been said is there's no such thing as luck because attributions are profoundly subject to cognitive biases. Now there is some disagreement concerning whether or not the concept of fortune is the same as the concept of luck. And the definition of prosperity is the condition of being successful or thriving with flourishing good fortune. Really all these concepts are correlated and have causal effects on each other. Another concept that is in this group of wishes for the new year is happiness & there is evidence that happiness is a cause of good health.
"Pursue the good ardently. But if your efforts fall short, accept the result and move on." -Epictetus
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